First Impression: SKS Commuter Full Fenders
March 18th, 2008 by Noah 
Photo: My Trek 1200 with SKS Commuter Fenders (click to Zoom)
Fritz told us about fenders late last year. I’ve always been on the fence when it comes to fenders. It does rain quite a bit out here in the great plains of the United States, but at the same time, I have a few multi-mode commuting options at my disposal when things get grimy. My thoughts were that when it’s actually raining, fenders won’t keep me dry, and if the road is soaked with standing water after a rain storm or simply condensation from a high-humidity night, then I only have to get through a few miles to get to a bus stop.
I am in the middle of reviewing a set of Commuter Fenders from SKS. I’m lucky that my Trek 1200 has all of the desired mounting eyelets for fenders. The rear fender can attach to the chainstay bridge (often used in mounting kickstands) with a bolt (if drilled) or with a rounded clip that can be bolted to the fender. It also attaches to the seatstay bridge, in my case this is shared with the rear brake. Both fenders have arms that attach to eyelets on the fork and rear drop-outs near the axles, with the front fender mounting at the top of the fork, also sharing the mounting point with my brake.
I had to partially remove my cargo rack to install the SKS Commuter Fenders, but they came with various lengths of attachment bolts that allowed me to share the rear eyelets with the rack and fenders without any problems. I was impressed with the amount of thought that went into the attachment hardware included from SKS. The fenders also came with an allen wrench that fits all of the bolts supplied by SKS. The only other tool that I needed for installation was a 5mm allen wrench to remove my brakes in order to install the fenders. Installation was a breeze using the clear, concise multi-lingual instructions and diagrams provided by SKS on the packaging.
The front attachment arms interfere with the quick-release mechanism, so I now have to twist the acorn end of my skewer in order to clear the “lawyer’s lips“. Also, the attachment arms for the front fender were longer than they needed to be to fit my 25mm road tires. I chose to cut the arms back with a cut-off wheel on a rotary tool. These are perhaps the only annoyances that I could find with this kit. I’m told that some fenders have break-away segments on the attachment arms where they can be shortened with nothing more than a pair of pliers and a quick snap. The SKS Commuter fenders don’t seem to have this feature.
I had a dry commute yesterday morning and was pleased to discover that the fenders were rock-solid, didn’t get in the way of pedaling, and didn’t rub on the tires or interfere with the brakes. Without looking, I can’t even tell they’re present, even at the higher speeds afforded by downhill sections of my commute route.
This morning, I was able to give them an honest shakedown. It rained quite a bit last night. Not a drop was falling from the sky but there were plenty of puddles accompanied by an ample layer of standing water on the road. I didn’t have time for a full ride to work, but after two miles to the bus stop, only a few drops of road grime were present on the toes of my shoes. I’ve ridden this route many times with wet or dewy pavement. My shoes and pants are usually soaked after just a few miles. The included rubber mudflaps did a great job keeping me dry by providing a little extra coverage.
I’ll give a full review including installation pictures once I’ve fully tested them. For now, these fenders get two thumbs up in the categories of price, completeness of coverage, and ease of installation.
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Before anyone asks, the rack is angled back intentionally to minimize heel strike with my panniers. The setup works very, very well but looks somewhat awkward without panniers on it.
I absolutely love my fenders. I got lots of “nerd” remarks from friends sometimes, but as you’ve discovered they basically eliminate all splash-up from the road. When it rains or snows, I wear waterproof pants and jacket, and the only thing I usually need to change are my socks and shoes.
Fenders are great. I have some on my RL MC 29er, and I will soon be buying a set for my new Surly X-Check that I had built up. I can only speak for myself, but I am much more motivated to ride on poor weather days if I have a set of fenders installed. I hate the swamp butt that one gets from riding a fender-less bike in wet weather.
Fenders make your ride look more utilitarian, that is for sure. But the utilitarian look is cool to me.
Peace out
I used to look askance at bikes with fenders…until I started commuting in the Florida rains. Man, fenders RULE!
One thing you might want to do on the front is extend the “mudflap” a bit. A couple extra inches of length really makes a huge difference in how clean and dry your BB and feet stay. I used rubber matting, but I’ve seen folks use cut-up pop or waterbottles to make an extension. Check these babies out: http://www.phred.org/~alex/bikes/fendermudflap.html
It is a perfectly acceptable (and expected) chore to trim the excess strut length on fenders…even those fancy Honjo or Berthoud fenders come with extra-long struts, and trimming IS expected. The Dremel tool is the perfect tool for that task, as well.
I Recently took the plunge and mounted Planet Bike Freddy Fenders on my commuter. To trim the struts, I used a bolt cutter to nip them down little by little. The ends wind up being sharp and ugly, but when installed they aren’t visible. The bolt cutter made a pretty quick job of it.
I was gonna ask about your angled rack
Any awkward moments from toe strike with the fender yet?
No toe strike. After I chopped the arms, it’s ALMOST (but not quite) impossible to hit the fender with my bike shoes clipped in. I’d almost have to try, and even then, I don’t think it would actually budge the fender from its proper location.
I agree that fenders are key on a commuter rig, however the yours seem woefully short, especially in the rear. The rear flap should keep road spray off the rider behind you as well (good karma, not to mention etiquette). It really should come down nearly as far as the front.
I don’t know if those are really “full” fenders.
Well, they’re sold as full fenders, and they do definitely keep the spray off of me. I’m pretty slow, so there’s not often anyone behind me.
Fenders are great when traveling through horse country. Those little piles with straw mixed into it are not piles of mud.
Like GR, I live in Florida. If you want to ride any afternoon during the summer, you have to ride either in rain or the aftermath of such. Fenders are a necessity, unless one enjoys eating road grime. I have SKS P45 fenders and the rear is much longer than the “Commuter”, even with the integral mudflap. The “Commuter” looks much like the fenders on the Raleigh One Way. It seems odd that a fender marketed at commuters would be so short. GR gave excellent suggestions for mudflaps. However, if you want to be kind of fancy, Velo Orange sells a really nice leather mudflap for MUCH less than Berthoud.
I find it hard to imagine riding a bike without fenders as they do a great job in the rain and also in weather that looks okay until you check your downtube! Fenders protect your pride and joy at all times and to my mind make most bikes ‘complete’. I race and when I’m doing that then it’s all out on a stripped racer. Anything else is a rack ,fenders and stand job. Trying to do without these things is a major compromise to someone else’s opinion of you. Ignore them and live a happier life!
Does anyone know whether you can install these fenders on a 2008 Kona Paddy Wagon?
xylitol: You’ll be looking for a few things.
1) 700c wheels. Less than 30mm tires the same fenders I got (35mm) will work. They come in 2 wider widths for wider tires as well.
2) Chainstay bridge. Either a flat plate a few inches behind the bottom bracket (where the cranks and pedals go through the frame) or a round tube bridging the chainstay. Photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=chainstay+bridge
3) Mounting hole at the top of the fork and seatstays. Many bikes use these holes for brake calipers or as a reflector mount.
4) Threaded eyelets behind the axle on the front fork and rear dropouts.
If you have that stuff, then it will work nicely on your Paddy Wagon, or any other bike.
Full fenders rock for any commuter. Me and my Salsa Las Cruces stay cleaner and drier. And if anyone thinks that looks geeky, I invite them to race me!
I do have to be careful with my winter Lake MTB shoes on, as they are huge and can strike the front fender at large handlebar turn angles.
The Paddy Wagon has fender mounts front and rear, so fenders should work. I don’t know what the tire and brake clearance is on this bike, though, so ask the bike shop for recommendations on specific fenders.
We have on avg 196 days of rain a year, so fenders are the norm for our “Rain BIkes”. I also run the SKS, but use the fuller version that comes down lower in the back. I also added extensions fore and aft which really minimize the amount of grime on the bike. This minimizes the amount of service and cleaning.
It may seem silly to go all the way to the ground in the rear, but you would be amazed how high spray can reach from a high fender as pictured. When drafting the rain, the second stays drier by being in the rain shadow. Rearward wheel spray is just bad manners.
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Don’t forget that if you have a bike that doesn’t have threaded eyelets at the fork tips and dropouts, you can purchase vinyl-covered “P Clamps” to fit fenders. Velo Orange sells them (http://www.velo-orange.com/pforfeat.html), as do many hardware stores. Lacking those, stout zipties work wonders to fit fenders to just about any bike!
Another fender to consider other than PB, Thank god its going to be dry for the next 6 or 8 months, giving me time to decide.
Thanks for the review, I suppose I should just suck it up and put fenders on my old Trek 730….